SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- A group of people opposing the protests against an election law in Hong Kong have gathered more than 1.8 million signatures from residents demanding that police restore public order.

The organizers of the campaign presented the petition against Hong Kong’s Occupy Central protesters to Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam Monday night, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

“It is the will of the majority of Hong Kong citizens; it means that one in every four people in Hong Kong has signed the petition. The government is now authorized by public mandate to free our roads and to restore law and order,” said the spokesman of Alliance for Peace and Democracy, Robert Chow Yung.

He added that the petition will be presented within a few days to the region’s chief secretary for administration and the secretary for security.

Meanwhile, Lam said the Hong Kong government will examine the situation and not let the Occupy Central movement drag on, according to Xinhua.

The anti-protest campaign started on October 25 and ended on November 2, with around 1.34 million signatures coming from people on the streets and the rest online.

Protesters launched a campaign of occupying government buildings in Hong Kong on September 27, 2014. Police and protesters have clashed on many occasions ever since.

Protesters are opposed to an election law introduced by the government in Beijing. Under the law, the people of Hong Kong will have to elect their next leader from a list of Beijing-vetted candidates in 2017.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The financial hub has enjoyed substantial political autonomy since 1997, when its leadership returned to China after about a century of British colonial rule.